"Christ did not honor himself by assuming he could become High Priest. No, he was chosen by God, who said to him, 'You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.' Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him." (Hebrews 5:5,8,9 NLT)
My family and I live in an old farmhouse. It has lots of character. What it does not have are lots of outlets. Which is why what it also has, besides character, are lots of extension cords.
We've got extension cords plugged into extension cords. We've got extension cords plugged into adapters that expand our outlets from singles to triples. We've got other adapters that convert our old two-pronged outlets into the three-pronged variety.
It's all an electrician's nightmare, but we do try to plug the big-ticket items like our window air conditioners (central air being another thing we traded for "character") directly into actual wall outlets. We want them hooked up as directly as possible to the main source of our power.
Jesus is the—THE—Source of our spiritual power. But too often, I know I try to hook up to Him via extension cords: fellowship with other believers; worship music; Bible studies; devotions; good works. These are all such good things! I believe they are appointed and blessed by God. They are the heavy-duty, grounded, professional-grade extension cords of the life of faith. But they are not the Source. They are akin to those gas generators that keep a few basic things running when the electricity is out: wonderfully helpful to have close at hand, especially during stormy weather. But to keep things really running along without interruption, we need to be reliably hooked up to the equivalent of a generator that is wired directly into the circuit board of a house.
We need to be hardwired into the primary Source of our salvation.
We access this Source through worship: our own, not dependent on other people doing it or leading us in it.
We access this Source through prayer: various forms, at various times, using various words and, sometimes, no words at all.
We access this Source through God's Word: opening our Bibles and asking God to teach us, independent of any other teacher.
And then there is one more thing we must do to access the power of this Source, and Hebrews 5:9 tells us what is it: "obey." To obey—to do what God tells us to do through His Word, to do what Jesus tells us to do through His example, to do what the Holy Spirit tells us to do through His prompting—is to flip the power switch and gain full access to the Source of our salvation.
And this is salvation by adoption, not by extension. This is salvation that plugs us into the family and lets us, too, hear Abba's words: "You are my child. Today I have become your Father."
We access this Source through God's Word: opening our Bibles and asking God to teach us, independent of any other teacher.
And then there is one more thing we must do to access the power of this Source, and Hebrews 5:9 tells us what is it: "obey." To obey—to do what God tells us to do through His Word, to do what Jesus tells us to do through His example, to do what the Holy Spirit tells us to do through His prompting—is to flip the power switch and gain full access to the Source of our salvation.
And this is salvation by adoption, not by extension. This is salvation that plugs us into the family and lets us, too, hear Abba's words: "You are my child. Today I have become your Father."
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I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to tell me what you really think. Years ago, I explained to my then-two-year-old that my appointment with a counselor was "sort of like going to a doctor who will help me be a better mommy." Without blinking, she replied, "You'd better go every day." All of which is just to say I've spent some time in the school of brutal honesty!